U. S. 60

CLIMATE EVALUATION

This highway, through the south-central portion of the State, contains no extremely low elevation country after the first few miles near the Colorado River, and passes through some of the higher portions of the State on its eastern segment.

The western third of this highway from Blythe to Wickenburg passes through some of the driest portions of the state, but at a slightly higher elevation than U.S. 80, hence daytime temperatures are from three to five degrees lower on U.S. 60. During winter months temperatures are mild and only a minimum protection for radiators is advisable for early mornings. Winter storms are not frequent although extensive rain and even snow has been encountered on occasion. Snow at this elevation would melt in an hour or two and present no hazard to traffic. In summer temperatures of 100° and over are the rule with frequent temperatures over 105°. Higher temperatures will be encountered on the short stretch from Blythe to Quartzsite due to the lower elevation. The summer thundershower season is July and August. Occasional showers will be encountered, mostly during late afternoon or evening hours.

The central portion of this highway from Wickenburg through Phoenix to about Florence Junction averages lower in elevation with slightly higher temperatures. This difference is too slight to be noticeable to the ordinary motorist. The same precipitation characteristics as on the western portion apply to about Mesa. From Mesa to Florence Junction the frequency and severity of summer storms increases due to the proximity of the Superstition Mountains. In respect to precipitation this short stretch of highway should be tied to the eastern portion for discussion.

From Florence Junction through Globe and Salt River to about Cibecue Junction the highway passes through desert mountains and canyons and high plateau country with increasing intensity of climate characteristics. During winter months temperatures are cool, but not severe. Radiator protection is necessary for early mornings from November through April. Most winter storms result in snowfall although the area is mild enough that the snow usually melts in two or three days. Chains would be advisable for ice and snow during stormy periods only.

During summer this portion of the highway is warm with occasional days over 100°. Summer thundershowers during July and August are frequent and sometimes heavy due to the mountainous terrain. Flash floods occasionally occur, delaying traffic momentarily.

The eastern portion of this highway travels through high mountains and valleys, some timbered. The summit of 7550 feet, between Show Low and Springerville is the third highest summit on a U.S. designated highway in Arizona. Winter temperatures over this portion of U.S. 60 are cold. Radiator protection is necessary during all winter months. Winter storms increase in frequency. In fact, practically every winter-type storm which passes through Arizona causes precipitation in this area. Precipitation usually takes the form of snow and may be encountered anytime from mid-October to mid-May. Ice is often on the highway due to melting snow. It is advisable to carry chains over this portion of U.S. 60 during heavy winter storms. During summer, temperatures are mild to cool. Thundershowers occur during July and August. Their frequency in this area is among the highest of any portion of highway in the State, averaging thirteen days per month during July and August. On occasion showers will occur almost daily. The period of minimum activity is from seven A.M. to noon. Strong wind conditions often prevail over the eastern portion of this highway during winter and spring months. The dry season of the year is usually May and June.

This is the story of U.S. 60, the highway that carries its stream of motorists from the mid-Atlantic coast to the southern Pacific coast, linking Newport News with Los Angeles in a nearly direct line.

This route passes through colonial Williamsburg, traverses the Appalachians and the Ozarks, continues on through Amarillo and the Texas plains, crosses the Rio Grande in the New Mexico Pueblo Indian country, taps the complete range of Arizona climate and topography and ends in Los Angeles.

Particularly, this is the story of U.S. 60 within its Arizona boundaries; its history, its romance and the abundance of other fascinating Arizona regions it taps.

Unlike a baby who enters the world at a precise moment, “60” existed embryonically for years before the earliest fur trapper and missionary, outlaw and settler beat their paths through the primitive wilderness of the White Mountains; before the first wild hay crop attracted settlers to the Salt River Valley around Phoenix; before Henry Wickenburg and other prospectors cast longshadows across the hot desert of the Colorado Basin. For a thousand years before the arrival of the first freight wagon, the path of future "60" had known the soft pad of primitive feet, the rustle of brush as some aborigine form pursued its game. Over this route have since come perhaps as varied a passenger list as anywhere on earth: mountain men, prospectors, pioneers, missionaries, freighters, Indian scouts, army troops, bandits, cattle thieves and finally, when the route was old with the traffic of years, it was bridled by the wheel of the freight wagon, saddled by the advent of the automobile and at last tamed and harnessed to the pace of modern traffic.

ARIZONA WELCOMES YOU

How do you regard a highway as you roll along? Is it simply a paved interval between overnight stops? A measure of distance between one gas station and the next? A time element between coffee breaks? Or, while traveling, do you wonder how the road came to be where it is and what early traveling on it might have been like? The writer remembers motoring circa 1916when linen dusters were proper attire, goggles kept the gravel out of the eyes when the windshield was open and a chiffon veil tied over the hat and face was as useful as it was considered elegant.

Unfortunately, the writer became acquainted with Arizona motor motoring at the late date of 1928 by which 28 by which year a good deal of excitement had been graded out of the mountain roads though it was still possible to work up a lather on the Apache Trail. Even then, with the short wheel base cars, it was necessary to back up to get around some of the mountain curves. By then ten years had gone by since the days of the Blue Book. Remember? When you went straight for three miles until you came to the red barn by the oak tree. If by then the oak had been felled or the barn repainted another color, you relied on the nearest farmer for your directions to Populopolis.

Blue Book days, ancient as they now seem, were modern in the story of Highway 60 which begins, if such growth can be pinpointed to a date, just eighty-one

Springerville, gateway to the White Mountains Farm at Eagar Fishing near Springerville Show Low, important lumber and travel center

years ago when a stage route ran from the end of the Santa Fe Railroad at Las Animas, Colorado, following the Rio Grande valley through Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Belen, Socorro to El Paso, Texas.

In that year the brothers Julius and Gustav Becker employed by the stage coach operators, were waiting at Belen (New Mexico) to change horses when the stage came in bringing two men from west of the mountains in Arizona. The men expanded on the fine cattle country up in the Via Rodondo (now Round Valley in the Springerville-Eagar area) and said they were going back to Texas to gather a herd of cattle to bring up there.

Soon after, Julius left by horseback for the Via Rodondo, passing a few wagon caravans on the way, and finding the Round Valley country all that had been described, settled at what is now Springerville and was later joined by his brother Gustav. Here in the mountain meadows with the White Mountain wilderness to the south of them, the brothers started farming and later merchandising to the pioneer settlers who were beginning to trickle in and carve homesteads out of the wilderness.

There were few trails west of the Rio Grande at that time; the mountains that rim the valley on the west were an effective barrier to the White Mountain area beyond. Because of its isolation, among Round Valley's first white inhabitants were cattle rustlers and brigands. The Beckers later discovered their two cattlemen friends, on whose recommendation they had come to the area, were rustlers who were later apprehended and returned to Texas by the rangers.

In those days Belen was something of a merchandise mart. Goods consigned to the Beckers was held at Belen until the Becker ox teams could get over the mountains to pick them up. Drummers also made the Belen stop and one of the Beckers would ride over on horseback to meet and purchase. For freighting, oxen were used instead of horses on the earliest trails and the journey from Springerville to Belen took sixty days round trip. Since there was no post office in Round Valley, mail was carried by ox freighter. By 1891 the trails had improved enough to permit the use of horses and mules which cut the trail time in half.

The old trail between Quemado and Belen may still be followed (but not by car). In 1885 the trail was changed to pass from Quemado through Magdalena to Socorro. Magdalena was then the end of the branch stage line west out of Socorro and the new trail was first used as a short cut by ranchers and freighters going east out of Springerville. Freighting continued by wagon and team over that route until 1918 when trucks first came into use in that territory. To us now, the year 1918 seems comparatively "modern" yet it was only then that Highway 60-to-be as such emerged from the infancy of wagon tracks to a juvenile stage of truck-ruts. The first "tourist" was yet to come.

Meanwhile the Santa Fe Railroad was extended from Albuquerque to the Pacific, the town of Holbrook was established and a shorter route came into use from Holbrook on the north via Concho and St. Johns south to Springerville. Mail was taken from the train at Holbrook, brought by buckboard to St. Johns, then by twowheel cart to Round Valley. This route later became Highway 260.

These were the years of the Indian wars in Arizona Territory, years when army outposts dotted the country and travel from post to post led to the establishment ofroutes which later developed into highways, and settlements which became or gave impetus to the founding of our modern cities.

Just as the need for hay at Fort McDowell east of Phoenix started the great irrigated projects in the valley, so did the need for produce at Fort Apache southeast of Round Valley established trade and trail westward.

About this time the Becker brothers arranged to sell Round Valley produce at Fort Apache. As the farmers were short on cash, they delivered their barley, oats and hay to the fort on contract with Becker in return for credit for merchandise at the Becker store. Gradually the trail from Springerville to the Fort via McNary (then Cluff Cienega) was established and later extended southward to San Carlos on the San Carlos Apache Indian reservation by the authorities at Fort Apache and nearby White River. This road, which is now State 73, was the old Highway 60 before that number was transferred to the present Show Low route. It was the only access road between the desert valley to the south and the White Mountain areas at that time.

Meanwhile with the establishment of the Mormon communities of Eagar, Nutrioso, Alpine and Greer, trade and travel by settlers determined the route of future Highway 260 southeastward from Springerville.

Highway construction in those days was primitive and slow; as freighters made their way down previous trails, men walked alongside or ahead, moving rocks, filling gullies and cutting brush. Black powder, fuse and caps were often used to blast rocks that couldn't be moved by hand; occasionally Becker and other merchants would send out road crews to improve the roads. The largest piece of earth-moving road equipment was a wheel barrow and the heaviest motive power was a team.

We are now well aware of air-time versus motoring time and the enormous advantage of air travel is speed is paramount. Will highways ever become obsolete? Not as long as travelers wish to savor the sights and sounds and smells characteristic of each locality. Sometimes it is imperative to keep an appointment five hundred miles and three hours away from the present, and it is occasionally interesting to see the landscape as a whole rather than in part, but for vacationers who wish to know the country through which they are passing motor travel has the greater compensation of proper perspective: when lakes are not blue dots, mountains are not mushrooms and hills are not picklewarts as when viewed from the air.

The writer would not deny that western miles are seemingly longest but recall the travel times of Highway 60 in the Eighties. It was a three day trip from Springerville east to Magdalena by buckboard or buggy; seven or twelve days by freight team depending on the weather. This, to go one hundred and thirty miles!

From Springerville north to Holbrook the ninetymile trip required seven to nine days depending on the weather; from Springerville southwest to Fort Apache, the sixty-four mile trip took six days in good weather and ten to twelve days in rain. There were no hotels or stopping places; travelers bedded down for the night in the open and carried water and hay except during the rainy season when grass was plentiful along the route.

ARIZONA US COLOR 60 DATA

In 1910 an event took place that few of America's millions of motorists now remember. In that year, the National Highways Association now known as the American N. H. A. decided to lay out an auto route across the nation from coast to coast. They employed a Mr. A. L. Westgard to make the first pathfinding trip. He followed different trails west from Washington, D.C. to Kansas City where he picked up the old Santa Fe Trail and continued on that through Kansas, southeastern Colorado, Raton Pass, Santa Fe and Isleta where the railroad branched westward.

Westgard had to go further south to Los Lunas, then took the trail west as far as he could go following the railroad. When he reached McCartys, some seventy miles west of Los Lunas and a few miles east of Grants, there were no more roads possible for automobile travel. At that point he met a sheepherder who suggested he take a trail east of the lava beds leading southwest to a point near Artarque and the present Salt Lake crater, then south on the salt trail to Springerville.

To digress a moment; Salt crater or lake as it is named on the map is not without interest in itself. Lying eighteen miles north of Quemado (unimproved road, good when dry), the salt lake is a small body of water (with a salt content higher than that of Great Salt Lake) in the bowl of a cinder cone which in turn rises from the crater bed of an ancient volcano. To this day the Zuñi Indians hold annual salt ceremonies on the rim of the cone casting "Apache Tears" (small obsidian stones) and willow sticks decorated with feathers into the lake. This is a prehistoric Indian salt supply; when Coronado passed this way en route to the Seven Cities of Cibola in 1540, he traded with the Zuñi acquiring salt which they obtained from this place. As with all salt lakes, the swimmer is here unsinkable and although Mr. Becker tried sounding the depth some years ago, he used up twentyfive hundred feet of line without touching bottom.

Westgard's trail is still to be found on some sections of the map marked as poor or primitive road. On reaching Springerville he learned of the hauling being done to Fort Apache and from there to points west and south so he took a chance. Driving a car with high clearance called the "Pathfinder" and guided by the Beckers, he crossed the White Mountains to Fort Apache and from there followed the government and Indian route to Phoenix and then Yuma where he used rolls of canvas laid down on the sand in order to cross the dunes. Eventually he arrived at Los Angeles, and end of his trail, thus marking the very first highway to be laid out across the nation.

The following year, 1911-driving a Saurer truck, Westgard made a second coast-to-coast trip. He had rolls of canvas on each side of the truck and planks measuring 3x12x16 which he used to negotiate impassable sections through sand and mud flats. Since there were no bridges at that time over the White and Black rivers, he engaged men to pull him across. On this trip he followed the Rio Grande to Socorro, then west over present Highway 60 to Magdalena, Datil, Quemado and Springerville.

During both trips Westgard tried to find an easier pass from the Rio Grande across the mountains into Arizona but the Socorro-Springerville route was and is the most direct and accessible. Furthermore, the people of Springerville and Fort Apache, isolated as they were from rail connections, were roadminded and encouraged Westgard to seek his trail in this area.

OPPOSITE PAGE

"GRAZING HEREFORDS-WHITE MOUNTAINS" BY CHUCK ABBOTT. Fine herefords graze near Crescent Lake in the White Mountains, an extensive region in east-central Arizona ranging in elevation from six to ten thousand feet. Here the dense forests of spruce, pine and fir break away to form rolling meadows carpeted with fine range grass. 587 Deardorff camera, Ektachrome film. Ektar lens, 1/10 at f.zo.

FOLLOWING PAGES

"WASHDAY IN APACHE LAND" BY ESTHER HENDERSON. This is washday in Apacheland, where the full bright skirts worn by the women are often seen strung along fences and flying in the wind. This is Julia from White River Apache Reservation who seems to have a good supply of skirts and hangs the baby on her back as she hangs the clothes on the line. 387 Deardorff view camera. Ektachrome film. Ektar lens, 1/24 at f.12.

"THE OLD SWIMMIN HOLE" BY CARLOS ELMER. While spending a very enjoyable week during the summer of 1954 at Lakeside, 8 miles southeast of Show Low, we visited this pretty lake every day. No sandy beach, lifeguards, or hot dog standsjust blue water, whispering pines, and those fabulous Arizona summer skies. So elegant a spot must have an imposing name, but everyone asked insisted it was just The Swimmin' Hole. 4x4 Burke & James press camera, gomm Schneider Angulon lens, Ektachrome, f.18, 1/25th second.

"SAWMILL AT MENARY" BY CARLOS ELMER. It's fun to take the guided tour of this huge yellow pine sawmill at MeNary. 18 miles southeast of Show Low. This is one of the biggest in the business, and all the operations seem to be carried on at double time, as one used to say in the army.

CENTER PANEL

"BRIDGE OVER THE SALT RIVER" BY CHUCK ABBOTT. Magnificent is the word for the Salt River Canyon where Highway 60 winds down from one rim, crosses this bridge across the Salt River and winds up to the far rim. Only a generation ago this rocky, formidable area was accessible only to pack mules and oldtimers still marvel at the new high gear highway that spans the gorge.

In 1913 Westgard made his third trip across the nation driving a Premier 6-60, still endeavoring to find a route easier than the one via Springerville. Again defeated by terrain, he reached Springerville by way of present "60" from Socorro, then north via St. Johns and Concho to Holbrook, thence west into Los Angeles via U.S. 66.

Just as the Becker brothers were pioneers in freighting days pushing eastward from Springerville to Socorro and westward to Fort Apache, so also was Westgard with his first cross-country auto trip following the Becker route in the White Mountain area. The name of Becker and the descendants of the first Julius and Gustav are still prominent throughout the White Mountain country but how many of the millions of coast-to-coast travelers could recall the name of Westgard and the excitement attending the very first trip across country by car?

After Westgard's first trip, the President of the United States in conjunction with the National Highways Association invited the governors of various states to appoint delegates to meet at Kansas City to lay out the first coast-to-coast highway. The governors of Arizona and New Mexico participated but those from states better served by existing highways were less interested.

At that time a Mr. J. S. McTavish, of the firm of Becker & McTavish in Magdalena who was also roadminded about his section of the country, gathered up

ARIZONA US COLOR 60 DATA OPPOSITE PAGE "THE GREEN DESERT AFTER SUMMER RAINS" BY DAVID MUENCH.

Taken with a Speed Graphic Camera on Ektachrome film. f.22 at 1/5 second. With a lush green covering the desert west of Wickenburg along U.S. Highway 60 and great tumbling clouds rolling through the sky, no photographer, or even sightseer could pass it by without a long look. The summer rains had done their work exceptionally well and there was a feeling of vibrant life through the whole landscape.

PRECEDING PAGES "MELODY OF SPRING" BY JOSEF MUENCH.

Graphic View camera. Ektachrome. 1/5th second at f.22 with sky filter. This scene is in the White Mountains south of Springerville. Midsummer time in this area is a world full of flowers and trimmed by the dark forest, forming a complete fairyland of its own.

"IN A DESERT GARDEN" BY JOSEF MUENCH.

Graphic View camera, Ektachrome. second at f.29 with a sky filter. Here is shown rugged Picket Post Mountain near Superior at the base of which is found the famed Arboretum. U.S. 60-70 passes nearby.

"PALO VERDES IN THE DESERT ALONG U.S. 60" BY CHUCK ABBOTT.

Spring on the desert means the golden shower of palo verde blossoms seen here along the Apache Trail some forty miles cast of Phoenix. When photographed against the light, the blossoms are brighter in color but thinner in mass so that the graceful outlines of the tree branches may be seen. Time: May afternoon. 587 Deardorff view camera. Ektachrome film, Goerz Artar lens, 1/10 at f.22.

"APACHE LAKE FROM THE APACHE TRAIL" BY CHUCK ABBOTT.

This scene is Apache Lake as seen in the early morning from the Apache Trail. Four large man-made lakes in this area back up the water that keeps Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun green besides being southern Arizona's greatest fishing, boating and resort area. 5x7 Deardorff View camera, Ektachrome film. Goerz Artar lens, 15 at f.20.

WELCOME TO ARIZONA

highway votes by means of proxies. Gustav Becker tried to do the same in Arizona but Mr. Del Potter, a live-wire booster living in Clifton, got ahead of Becker and gathered the votes by proxies in that region. Arizona people, by and large, paid little heed to the importance of roads at the time and when the convention took place, the coastto-coast highway was laid out from Los Angeles eastward to Clifton through Phoenix, Globe and Safford, the area controlled by Potter's proxies.

The coast-to-coast highway from the Atlantic was laid out following different national trails including the Santa Fe into Socorro, then Magdalena and Quemado along present "60" and ending at Springerville. There was a gap between the western end at Springerville and the eastern end at Clifton due as much to factional differences between the inhabitants of the region as to the rough terrain involved. As there was no connecting Coronado Trail at the time (present Highway 666) the two ends of the transcontinental route dangled unjoined within one hundred and thirty miles of each other.

About this time the Los Angeles Times deciding to publicize their city, sent the first car from Los Angeles to New York over this new route. Starting in April, they came east via Yuma, Phoenix, Globe, Safford and Clifton where they found themselves at the end of the road. There being no roads at all east out of Clifton, they returned to Globe and came north via the old freight road to Springerville. At Springerville they joined the dangle-end of the road east and continued to New York; the resultant publicity was the first ever given to a coast-to-coast travel artery and was the start of the great and continuing tourist migrations across the nation.

After this trip it was decided to hold an ocean-toocean convention boosting cross-country travel. Apparently others were blind to the future importance of such traffic but the eager-beaver Springervillians grabbed the convention and held it along the town's Main Street. The ensuing publicity started started tourists on cross-country trips which all passed along future "60" as there were no other connecting transcontinental roads at that time. which all passed al Old records kept by Mr. Becker show an interesting list of drivers, cars, origin and destination of the travelers. Among the earliest were Barney Oldfield, Edsel Ford, President Vinson of the Packard Motor Car Co. Then on December 28, 1912, the first Chevrolet car to be tested passed through Springerville driven by R. C. Durant who eventually formed his own auto manufacturing company. He was representing Louis Chevrolet, inventor of the car, which had been driven 100,000 miles and was their experimental car. The car was a seventy horse-power job and weighed 6000 pounds.

Under the road conditions of those days you may wonder how many people made the trip or at least passed through Springerville on 60. Mr. Becker's record reveals the following traffic data: 1912, 113 cars; 1913, 194 cars; 1914, 419 cars; 1915, 1376 cars; 1916, 1774 cars; 1917, 2607 cars; 1918, 4351 cars; 1919, 6083 cars. Rather a populous passenger total considering the times, roads and automobiles. Most of the transcontinental traffic came through Springerville, then branched off, some going north to Holbrook and some south via Globe to Phoenix.

Meanwhile the D. A. R. in Washington, D. C. joined forces with a new organization just formed in the early Twenties known as the National Old Trails Highways. This route included the Santa Fe Trail as far as Albuquerque. There they met with the same difficulty that confronted Westgard on his first trip: no road west following the railroad, hence they laid it out via Westgard's route, i.e., through Socorro to Springerville, then north to Holbrook and west on Highway 66. The president of the National Old Trails Highways Association was one Harry S. Truman and Julius Becker, nephew of the first Julius, became one of the board of directors on the coast-to-coast highway. Later the DAR decided to establish monuments along the trail to be known as "The Madonna of the Trail" in each of the states traversed by the highway. They erected the statue in Springerville for the State of Arizona and it stands there today a reminder not only of the pioneer families who came by covered wagon but of those latter-day pioneers who came by motor car.

Thus baby-highway "60" was born, grew and prospered but as yet remained nameless. In the midwest, the goggle-clad motorist looked dimly for the red ball on the telephone pole, or the black and yellow triangle marking the Yellowstone Trail, or the blue band top and bottom with the blue L between marking the Lincoln Highway. Sad for him if the paint had faded or the poles had been replaced or, as frequently, one marker was stenciled over on earlier one. It was a game in itself to find the poles, then consult your Blue Book for the insignia you wanted and then decipher which direction which insignia went. Nobody fell asleep at the wheel in those days; if the road wasn't rough enough to keep you awake, then reading the markers would accomplish the purpose!

Along in the mid-Twenties it was decided to give all routes in the nation a U. S. number wherever they could show cause for acceptance. For some reason the road through Socorro to Holbrook via Springerville remained unnumbered and even repeated trips to Washington made by the Beckers and other interested parties were to no avail until James McNary of McNary, fortunately acquainted with President Hoover, came to the capital at the opportune time and succeeded in approaching the proper officials who then designated Highway 70, which had previously ended in Clovis, New Mexico, to be extended west through Springerville terminating at Holbrook where it joined Highway 66.In the late twenties Lew Wentz, member of the National Association of Highway Officials, was interested in continuing U. S. 60 from its western terminus in Missouri through northern Oklahoma where he lived and thence on to the coast. Meanwhile scouts had made repeated trips over the road agreeing the best route was Amarillo, Clovis, Socorro, Springerville, Globe, Phoenix, Blythe and Los Angeles, recommended this route be numbered "60."

Now, however, having secured number "70," the Beckers were afraid to relinquish the sure "70" for the possible number "60," and for awhile there was feverish activity both for and against the proposed renumbering. Finally the Beckers and others, convinced the new highway was a certainty, accepted number "60" and onNovember 20, 1930, it was so proclaimed and designated.

It would seem the travail in finding and building a road should about end the matter but events proved that christening the baby was no small job in itself!

Possibly a similar amount of labor was entailed along other routes in the nation as they came into being but probably nowhere was the terrain so contrary and its settlers so persistent as in the case of Highway 60. It is an immeasurable credit to the Beckers that Highway 60 is what and where it is; they were the earliest pioneers in opening up that part of the country and steadfast in their determined efforts to secure highway access to their area.Add to the roster of Highway 60 progenitors the name of the indefatiguable Mr. Westgard; add also the names of those long-gone and unsung early Springervillians who walked alongside the freighters in every weather, who heaved and blasted, drained and filled that chuck-rut route through the mountains which was eventually to be transformed into a ribbon of flowing miles.

The early days of Highway 60 are recounted in some detail because they represent the birth of the American highway system in a country replete with more roads and traffic than any other in the world. The struggles to find the route were as difficult perhaps as the engineering required in its construction; the attendant factional disputes and opposition to the route are probably indicative more or less of the labors entailed in the early days of most U. S. highways. Such disputes are still going on all over the country.

Each region desires the biggest appropriation for its own roads, a natural desire, and since a main U. S. arterial running east-west across Arizona (namely Highway 66)

The lack of crag-tops fool you; this is the most extensively high elevation in the state, from seven to eleven thousand feet. You are already up so high there is not much left to tower over you and come winter, these gentle meadows are lost under their deep blanket of snow which lasts until spring when the lavender mists of wild iris once again proclaim another summer.

Continuing south from Big Lake, the road enters more forested regions, arriving at Beaver Head Lodge and the junction with 666 south. No greater contrast may be found than that between the open meadows and the dense forests of the White Mountain country. Deer, elk and antelope are often sighted in the meadows and the large predators, mountain lion and bear, inhabit the forests in such numbers that a government hunter is employed the year around to keep the predator population under control. This is incomparable spring, summer and fall country; days cool, nights chilly with probably daily afternoon showers with clear nights and mornings during the rainy season of July-August.

Leaving Springerville west on Highway 60, Highway 666 branches off at five miles going north through juniper country, past trout-filled Lyman reservoir through the old Mormon settlement of St. Johns to junction with Highway 66 at Sanders. Six miles west of Sanders is a junction with a dirt road leading directly north into the Navajo Indian country and Canyon de Chelly National Monument, spectacular trio of canyons whose red sandstone walls rise hundreds of feet vertically above the valley floor and encase in their crevasses some of the most dramatic cliff dwellings in the West.

At the St. Johns junction, Highway 260 turns west for Holbrook via the old Mormon town of Concho. Eighteen miles east of Holbrook you may turn right to take the road through the Petrified Forest, then continue on 66 into Holbrook. No traveler to this region should miss the drive through the Forest which is unique in the travel spots of the world. This is high plateau country and it stretches the imagination to picture it as a primordial shallow sea in the age of dinosaurs and trillobites.

Returning now to Highway 60 five miles west of Springerville and continuing westward, the road traverses an unusual landscape of old volcanic cinder cones sufficiently grass-covered to soften their outlines but bare of larger vegetation which would obscure their cone and bowl shapes. Intermittently throughout the West there are lava flows, cinder cones, lava outcroppings and necks but nowhere are there these undulating grassy cones with the exception of an area northeast of Flagstaff.

At Show Low (elevation: 6500 ft.), State 77 goes north through the characteristic Mormon communities of Shumway and Snowflake, Arizona's closest approximation to New England villages; going south, State 173 passes through the resort communities of Lakeside, Pinetop and Indian Head which is the last settlement on top the Rim in this section. Yes, this is still the Mogollon Rim only here the descent is much less precipitous than that on the Coronado Trail.

Four miles east of Indian Head (and still on top the Rim) lies the lumbering town of McNary which bears witness to the fact that good lumbering practices continue in perpetuity. Arizona timberlands are in the national forests of public domain; mature trees are marked for cutting with plenty of seed-trees left in every area. The lumber operators are required to clean up the broken limbs and litter with the result that one may drive all day through Arizona forests unaware of the lumbering operations being carried on. Arizona's timberlands are more than a vacationer's retreat and wildlife refuge; they are the watershed for valley and desert areas and as such are the most important asset in the state. There are no ghost lumber towns in Arizona, no desolated landscapes; under the present system of cooperation between lumbering interests and government, there never will be.

Continuing south from Indian Head on State 173, the road follows old "60," first access road to the southwest out of Springerville. This was the freighting road to White River now headquarters for Apache Indian Affairs, government school and hospital, and to Fort Apache, scene of many Indian uprisings and skirmishes. Some of the original Fort buildings are still standing and in use; otherwise the quiet atmosphere of a departed people pervades this old settlement.

About fifteen miles southwest of White River lies Kinishba Ruin, an extensive and partly restored prehistoric Indian village that once housed a large population of high culture. The main work on this site was begun and carried on by the late, untiring Dr. Byron Cummings of Tucson, at one time dean and president of the University of Arizona. Dr. Cummings and his archaeological discoveries are a story in themselves; Kinishba is the site of one of his major efforts.

Returning to Show Low and Highway 60, let's take a look at the town with the funny name. It sounds like a card game because that's what happened. Back in the eighties two early settlers by name C. E. Cooley and Marion Clark played a game of Seven-up and gambled for the ranch on which the town was built. The paste-boards were kinder to Cooley than Clark; Cooley played high making the game "six-and" Clark challenged him saying, "Show low and take the ranch." Cooley did. Later the property was sold to the Mormon Church which opened it for settlement. Because Highway 60 is an all-year route, Show Low has developed in the last few years from a hamlet into a junction point with shops, restau-rants and tourist accommodations.

Continuing on Highway 60 south from Show Low, the road proceeds through forests of Ponderosa pine in a gradual descent from the high elevations of the Mogollon Rim into the juniper and oak country of the Apache reservation to Forestdale below the Rim (cabins, gas, store). Forty miles farther, the highway enters Salt River Canyon hugging the walls in a winding descent until the bottom of the canyon is reached at Salt River (meals, cabins, gas). The rock-hewn canyon of the Salt which has its source in the White Mountains, is reminiscent of the formations of the Grand Canyon; in a state less well supplied with dynamic scenery, the canyon of the Salt would be a major attraction rising as it does from a desert elevation at the bridge to the juniper country of the rim.

If "all that goes up must come down," the reverse is frequently true in Arizona; a road that descends into a canyon often ascends the wall of the opposite side.

Directly past the bridge, Highway 60 starts its ascent again to juniper country; when the rim is reached a good view may be had of the whole course of the highway as it snakes its way first down and then up the canyon. An inspiring stretch of road; a tribute to the men and machines that bit into solid rock to create a four-lane, high-gear highway. After the climb to the rim, Highway 60 follows a gently descending grade through rolling cat-tle country down into Globe (elevation: 3509 ft.).

This peaceful pleasant town belies its hell-raising mining days of the Eighties; when potatoes sold for a dollar each and were thrown in with a pint of whiskey; when outlaws were hanged from a cottonwood in the center of Broad Street. This is the town that was born of the riches from the Old Dominion mine, the ruins of which may be seen on the hill above the slag dump at the lower end of Broad Street; the town that died when the silver veins were exhausted, then resurrected itself on copper riches undreamed of in silver days. Globe has a pleasant all-year climate midway between desert and mountains. At Globe, "60" joins busy U.S. Highway 70.

Four miles west of Globe, State 88 (Apache Trail) branches to the right and continues for eighty-three miles through the most spectacular desert country in the south-west. Passing by Tonto National Monument, cliff-dwelling home of the vanished Salado Indians, the mountainous road skirts Arizona's chain of lakes starting with the largest, Roosevelt, created by Roosevelt Dam, Arizona's first great reclamation project. Following Roosevelt, the road passes Apache, then Canyon and Stewart Mountain lakes, southern Arizona's great fishing and recreational area. Most dramatic portion of the highway is that part through cottonwooded Fish Creek canyon where the road abutts a towering sheer rock wall, then proceeds to climb out of this impasse by clinging to the cliff on its ascent to the rim. Emerging from the heights and depths of this wild area, the road passes Superstition Mountain, famous in fact and fancy for the gold strikes and harrowing adventures that have befallen people wandering into these mountains.

Hardly less dramatic scenery and considerably easier driving may be had by continuing on Highway 60 west from Globe through Miami past the great copper producing regions of central Arizona into Florence Junction. This portion of "60" was in many places cut from solid rock, bridged and tunneled at Queen Creek, scene of an Indian massacre.

Below the present route may still be seen portions of "60" before the recent completion of the new Queen Creek tunnel and bridge; a two-lane affair that seemed both safe and modern until compared to the new four-lane, high-gear highway. Looking deeper into the brush, particularly up the canyons, one can make out the outlines of the first narrow road that penetrated this canyon thus seeing at one time, three roads all made within one lifetime each of which carried its respective load commensurate with the traffic of the day.

From Florence Junction, Highway 80 turns south to Tucson via historic Florence; Highway 60 and 70 continue west to Apache Junction where it is joined by State 88 (Apache Trail) before continuing into Mesa, site of the beautiful Mormon Temple in Arizona; Tempe, home of Arizona State Teacher's College, and Phoenix.

Phoenix (elevation 1108 ft.), capitol and hub city of the state, with its wide streets, tall buildings, beautiful homes, parks and general cosmopolitan atmosphere grew up from a hay field in literally one lifetime. Only twenty years ago there were people still living who came to the

area when Fort McDowell (thirty miles east) was an army post during the Indian wars and hay was cut from the meadows along the Salt River to supply the fort. At that time the idea of regenerating the prehistoric Indian canals that threaded the valley occurred to one Jack Swilling, who formed the first irrigation company for that purpose. It's a long way but a short time between the hay fields and the skyscrapers; Phoenix is a prodigy of growth and development.

West from Phoenix, Highway 60 passes through the farming towns of Glendale and Peoria, then stretches out across the desert to Morristown where a dirt road east leads to Castle Hot Springs, idyllic resort retreat in the heart of the Bradshaw Mountains.

Following "60" north from Morristown, the desert resort town of Wickenburg is reached at the junction of Highway 89 coming in from the north. Wickenburg (elevation 2071 ft.) was founded by an emigrant Ger-man, Henry Wickenburg who struck it rich but never lucky, loosing his interest in the famous Vulture mine, then settling near town where he lived in poverty until he was found dead by his own hand at the age of eightyeight. The rich ore veins are about exhausted from this area; Wickenburg's wealth today is its healthful winter climate, its many and varied dude ranch resorts, its location as a desert crossroads.

Leaving Wickenburg, Highway 60 proceeds across the vast reaches of the Colorado Basin, a desert emptiness here and there pierced with settlements such as Aguila, Wenden and Salome. The late author-humorist Dick Wick Hall put Salome on the map with his quaint observations and limmericks and the constant stream of highway traffic has added somewhat to the former population of these little desert points. Small as they are, these dots of population make the motorist glad to stop for a coffee break; by night their twinkling lights seen from far away make the desert seem less lonely.

At Hope, State 72 branches north to cross the Colorado at Parker where, after a wet winter, the surrounding desert glows with the pink radiance of hundreds of acres of sand verbena frequently as large as geraniums.

Continuing west from Hope, Highway 60 arrives at Quartzsite, early-day mining town and stage station now chiefly remembered as site of Hi-Jolly's grave.

Hi-Jolly (Hadji Ali) was a Syrian camel driver employed to drive the camel caravans over the route of present Highway 66 when the idea of using these animals in the southwest first occurred to Lt. E. F. Beale of the War Department. The camels were worthy animals on their part but their American drivers could not accustom themselves to the sea-swell motion of the camels' gait and the very appearance of the strange beasts upset the horses and mules in the same caravan. The camel idea was discontinued, the animals released to roam the desert until they died off, Hi-Jolly alone remaining as sometime prospector and mule skinner until his death in 1902.

At Quartzsite State 95 goes south past the Kofa mountains wherein are located the only wild palms east of the Colorado river. A small grove of these palms is situated twenty miles south of Quartzsite and nine miles (good dirt road) into Palm Canyon. Here, the palms grow in a narrow crevass in the canyon walls about one thousand feet up from the valley floor.

Following Highway 60 west from Quartzsite, you arrive at Ehrenburg, last town on the western border of Arizona where a bridge crosses the Colorado River before entering Blythe, first town on the California side. Ehrenburg marks the site of an early ferry crossing and shipping point for gold found some eight miles north along the river at La Paz, one of the earliest and richest gold strikes in the state.

Wherever you go in the state of Arizona there is always a scene, a story, an incident. Though little may remain of the physical structures at each location, the atmosphere of legend encompasses them all. Mountain snows have buried, then disintegrated cabin scenes of pioneer excitement; desert winds and rains have covered and melted the adobe structures of pioneer activity; massacres, feuds, battles, captures, surrenders-the most stirring events are today located often by only a pile of rocks, a mountain spur, a desert spring. To know them all would take a lifetime; to know a few will at least make a portion of that lifetime more interesting.

In its entirety Highway 60 traverses ten states. It covers a distance of 402.5 miles within its Arizona boundaries, and passes through a climatic zone that ranges from alpine to desert. It is equaled only by north-south Highway 89 in the variety of landscape it traverses; pine forests, mountain meadows, grassy plateaus, juniper and live oak elevations, rock canyons, irrigated valleys, and finally desert.

From the time of its beginning as a freight road to the present, its construction has covered a span of eighty years and its very roadbed has been recut and enlarged at least three separate and distinct times within that period.